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donderdag 26 januari 2012

Rattlesnakes Roundup ends in Claxton

CLAXTON -- In its 45th year, the festival formerly known as the
Claxton Rattlesnake Roundup is undergoing something of a midlife
transformation.

The Evans County Wildlife Club, which has played host to the event
since 1968, recently announced that the Annual Claxton Rattlesnake and
Wildlife Festival is set for March 10-11. Fully owning its heritage but
dropping the word "roundup," the event no longer will include the buying
and selling of snakes for competition and prizes.

Crotalus adamanteus

A group of four wildlife and environmental groups that lobbied for
years to stop the roundup aspect of the event praised festival officials
for their decision.

"We're so happy the rattlesnake roundup in Claxton is being switched
to a humane event that celebrates these great native animals and
recognizes the importance of saving them," said Collette Adkins Giese,
an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity — a group that works
to protect rare and vanishing reptiles and amphibians.

All other elements of the festival — a parade, a pageant, a footrace, a
two-day arts and crafts show, live musical entertainment — would be
retained, said Wildlife Club President Bruce Purcell. He emphasized that
rattlesnakes and snakes of other species still would be exhibited live.

"We want to shift gears from a rattlesnake roundup where everybody
came to see rattlesnakes to a wildlife festival where we're promoting
wildlife and educating people about wildlife and the conservation of
wildlife," Purcell said. "I think we can open this event up and the
possibilities for our promoting and protecting wildlife are endless."

Other attractions that enhance the festival as a venue for wildlife
education are being expanded, Purcell said. Among these are flight shows
featuring bald eagles and other birds of prey from Georgia Southern
University's Wildlife Education Center, "Let's Get Wild" shows put on by
independent wildlife educator Steve Scruggs, and the Southeast Spring
Classic Turkey Calling Contest, sanctioned by the National Wild Turkey
Federation annually in conjunction with the festival.

Additionally, new exhibits of snakes, fish and other wildlife are
being developed in cooperation with the Georgia Department of Natural
Resources (DNR).

But Purcell said rattlesnakes would remain the stars of the show.

Last year, just seven hunters brought in about 100 snakes, Purcell
said. The snakes were sold to an out-of-state buyer. With this element
of the festival eliminated, Purcell said, eastern diamondback
rattlesnakes instead would be exhibited in about equal numbers through
exhibits obtained in cooperation with the DNR.

"As far as the public is concerned, we'll still have plenty of snakes
to come look at. We're going to have rattlesnakes," Purcell said. "We
simply have stopped buying and selling snakes."

The rattlesnake roundup began in 1968. Due to snake hunters dwindling
and a move toward wildlife education and conservation, the Wildlife Club
board unanimously voted to drop the buying and selling of rattlesnakes.

"We're not in a position to make them go one way or the other, but we
certainly support the direction they're going," said DNR Commissioner
Mark Williams. "We think it's a good thing, and we're going to help them
out any way we can."

Steve Hein, director of the Center for Wildlife Education at Georgia
Southern University, also expressed support for the Rattlesnake &
Wildlife Festival's new direction. Last year, for the first time, Hein
and other staff members brought flight shows of the bald eagle named
Freedom and other birds to the festival auditorium.

"I applaud the Evans County Wildlife Club," Hein said. "I will point
out that in their (club) constitution, conservation and education have
always been the mainstays, so this is not a fundamental shift in
philosophy, but rather in practice."

He said Freedom and other birds from the university's collection would be back this year.

Crotalus adamanteus

The festival will maintain a stance friendly to lawful hunting and
fishing as essential for wildlife conservation, Purcell said.
Organizers, he added, hope to reach out to other groups such as the
Ogeechee Riverkeeper and the Georgia Wildlife Federation to augment the
exhibits.

The festival is the largest annual event for Claxton and Evans County.
Last year's festival drew about 18,000 people, and Purcell said he
hopes this year's will top 20,000. The club contributes proceeds to
various charities, funds scholarships for local high school students,
and makes its building, pavilions and grounds available for other
community events throughout the year.